Fargo, North Dakota.
This week, Anne shares her love of her hometown and features images in the challenge she titled, “Local Vistas.” She writes, “What are your local vistas? Where do you photograph when you don’t have a lot of time or are not on vacation? What about your hometown excites you? Is it the countryside, city, gardens, amusement venues? This week, tell us about and show us your local vistas.” You can read her entire challenge post here.
I’ve lived and worked in the Fargo area for over 30 years, and it is our forever hometown. We make jokes about the North Dakota winters, and it’s no secret that we head south each year after retiring and no longer need to spend the coldest part of the year in sub-zero cold. Still, some of my favorite images were captured in the cold. One of my favorite places to visit is along the shore of the Red River of the North. The triptych below features images captured along the river that separates North Dakota from Minnesota.
The image above was captured in December a few years ago. It was taken on the Minnesota side of the river at a small parking area.
This image was captured from my drone and taken from the vantage point of the same park as the winter scene above. From this angle, it’s easy to see the small dam that is less noticeable in the winter image.
I’ve shared the third image of this triptych in color more than once, so for this challenge, I decided to share it after conversion to black-and-white. This site is from a park on the North Dakota side of the river a few miles south of the first two river shots.
Not far from our condo, there is a pioneer village that focuses on the Bonanza Farms that proliferated in the late 19th century. Several buildings from North Dakota were moved to Bonanzaville to create a community of historic structures that might otherwise have been lost to history. Dawson Hall is a theater that still offers live plays each year due to the support of a local theater group. I will admit to having found myself in some of the plays as a former member of the group.
Every year, I enjoy the fall harvest and enjoy traveling the section roads that divide the agricultural parcels. One of North Dakota’s most prolific products is also one of the most beautiful to photograph. Sunflower fields are easy to find on a country drive in our local area. This image was captured with the camera in my drone.
The night sky in the North Dakota countryside is dark enough to show off the billions of stars each clear evening. Since we were still in the blue hour when this image was captured, it wasn’t yet dark enough to get a true photo of the number of stars visible in our night sky. This photo is best viewed from my Flickr site where it is displayed on a black background. Click on it to see it there.
Our communities share a minor league baseball team, the Red Hawks. Every year we are sure to attend a few games to enjoy the sights and sounds of America’s National Pasttime.
Regular readers have come to expect a reference to aviation in many of my posts. Here’s a view of rural North Dakota about 17 miles (27 km) west of Fargo. This image was captured in mid-August while I was a passenger in a glider being towed to altitude for eventual release.
One of my favorite city parks is Lindenwood. One day I took my camera and lens ball to the park to experiment with it. My favorite image from that day of shooting is this image of the fountain and garden near the main entrance to the park.
While this image could have been captured with my drone, it wasn’t. I was in the back seat of a rented aircraft while a friend of mine was flying. Though the details are lost in the shade, my condo is on the bottom floor in the center of the building. The chimney stack closest to the lawn and parking area is for the fireplace units in my unit and the unit above mine.
To view the images in HD on my Flickr site, you can click on any image, or you can view the entire album here. Thanks to Anne for this challenge that allows everyone to share a bit of their local area. Next week we have a guest host for challenge #204. If you’d like to join in on our challenge but aren’t quite sure how to get started, click here.
John Steiner
I like the glider shot!
Thanks. It’s one of my favorites!
Great place to live John 🙂
No argument from me. 🙂
Amazing gallery.
Thank you!
Awesome images. Great tour. Thanks for showing me around.
Thanks, Dawn!
Thanks for showing us Fargo John. I’ve never been to North Dakota, so I totally enjoyed the tour through your lens. My favorites are the tryptic of the Red River and your aerial shot of the sunflower field. Well done on this challenge.
Thanks, Anne. If you ever get in the area, I am sure you’ll find plenty to photograph.
😎
All of these photos are so well done in every sense: subject, details, color, sharpness!
Thanks, Hien. They are among my favorite local photos, for sure.
Looks like a great area to live if, like you, you can escape the worst of the winters! I love that sunflower field shot in particular – stunning!
Thanks, Sarah. I have friends that can’t wait for winter as they love the cold and snow. For me, not so much. 😀
I’m with you!
The views are certainly wonderful around where you live. Great night skies too.
North Dakota has a lot of places that are truly dark and make for great night sky viewing. It is an advantage of having only 750,000 or so people living in the entire state.
Lovely place to live in John! I also love the Sunflower field!
Thanks, Aletta! Friendly people and no mountains to get in 5e way of the views. 😀
Oh these photos are fantastic. I enjoyed viewing them 😀 😀
Thanks, Cee! I enjoyed reprocessing some of my old favorite images for this challenge.
Terrific John – so much variety, both in subjects and methodologies! Loved the night sky, both here and at your site. Also loved the lens ball shot. I really need to get out and do that!
Thanks, Tina. Since these were taken around home, it is where I have the opportunity to experiment with different methods.
I love your image of the night sky, John. Deeply compelling.
Thanks! I should take advantage of our wide open spaces more often.
Love the light in your first photo and the stars in the night sky. Where do you go during the cold months?
We have been going to Arizona but next year we head to Florida. Time for a change.
What a great tour, John. Photos from the ground, from a drone, from a plane…..Great selection. I love the shots with the globe, sunset on the river, and the sunflower field. Beautiful.
Thanks, Patti! I didn’t realize how many images I have from around Fargo until I started looking for this challenge.
So much beauty here and the ND sky was my fav
⭐️🌟
I thought I was following your blog, but when I stopped by, it invited me to follow. Looking at my list of blogs followed in the Reader, yours was there. I “unfollowed” and re-followed. Not sure what’s up with that.
I am not sure either but thanks for the re-follow and thx for letting me know
Well- I might have been in the reader if you follow a certain tag? Or WP is glitchy again?
Could be just a glitch.